The White House, Democrats and MoveOn liberals are spreading health care sob
stories to sell a government takeover. But there's one health care policy
nightmare you won't hear the Obamas hyping. It's a tale of poor minority
patient-dumping in Chicago — with first lady Michelle Obama's fingerprints
all over it.

Both Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush
of Illinois have raised red flags about the outsourcing program run by the
University of Chicago Medical Center. The hospital has nonprofit status and
receives lucrative tax breaks in exchange for providing charity care.


Yet, in fiscal year 2007, when Mrs. Obama was employed there, it spent a
measly $10 million on charity care for the poor — 1.3 percent of its total
hospital expenses, according to an analysis performed for The Washington
Post by the nonpartisan Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. The figure
is below the 2.1 percent average for nonprofit hospitals in surrounding Cook
County.


Rep. Rush called for a House investigation last week in response to months
of patient-dumping complaints, noting: "Congress has a duty to expend its
power to mitigate and prevent this despicable practice from continuing in
centers that receive federal funds."


Don't expect the president to support a probe. While a top executive at the
hospital, Mrs. Obama helped engineer the plan to offload low-income patients
with non-urgent health needs. Under the Orwellian banner of an "Urban Health
Initiative," Mrs. Obama sold the scheme to outsource low-income care to
other facilities as a way to "dramatically improve health care for thousands
of South Side residents."


In truth, it was old-fashioned cost-cutting and favor-trading repackaged as
minority aid. Clearing out the poor freed up room for insured (i.e., more
lucrative) patients. If a Republican had proposed the very same program and
recruited black civic leaders to front it, Michelle Obama and her
grievance-mongering friends would be screaming "RAAAAAAAAACISM!" at the top
of their lungs.


Joe Stephens of The Washington Post wrote, "To ensure community support,
Michelle Obama and others in late 2006 recommended that the hospital hire
the firm of David Axelrod, who a few months later became the chief
strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Axelrod's firm (ASK
Public Strategies) recommended an aggressive promotional effort modeled on a
political campaign — appoint a campaign manager, conduct focus groups,
target messages to specific constituencies, then recruit religious leaders
and other third-party 'validators.' They, in turn, would write and submit
opinion pieces to Chicago publications."


Some health care experts saw through Mrs. Obama and PR man Axelrod — yes,
the same Axelrod who is now President Obama's senior adviser. But the
University of Chicago Medical Center hired ASK Public Strategies to promote
Mrs. Obama's initiative. Axelrod had the blessing of Chicago political guru
Valerie Jarrett — now a White House senior adviser.


Axelrod's great contribution: re-branding! His firm recommended renaming the
initiative after "internal and external respondents expressed the opinion
that the word 'urban' is code for 'black' or 'black and poor.' � Based on
the research, consideration should be given to re-branding the initiative."
Axelrod and the Obama campaign refused to disclose how much his firm
received for its genius re-branding services.


In February 2009, outrage in the Obamas' community exploded upon learning
that a young boy covered by Medicaid had been turned away from the
University of Chicago Medical Center. Dontae Adams' mother, Angela, had
sought emergency treatment for him after a pit bull tore off his upper lip.
Mrs. Obama's hospital gave the boy a tetanus shot, antibiotics and Tylenol,
and shoved him out the door. The mother and son took an hour-long bus ride
to another hospital for surgery.


I'll guarantee you this: You'll never see the Adams family featured at an
Obama policy summit or seated next to the first lady at a joint session of
Congress to illustrate the failures of the health care system.


Following the Adams incident, the American College of Emergency Physicians
(ACEP) blasted Mrs. Obama and Axelrod's grand plan. The group released a
statement expressing "grave concerns that the University of Chicago's policy
toward emergency patients is dangerously close to 'patient dumping,' a
practice made illegal by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor
Act (EMTALA)" — signed by President Reagan, by the way — "and reflected an
effort to 'cherry pick' wealthy patients over poor."


Rewarding political cronies at the expense of the poor while posing as
guardians of the downtrodden? Welcome to Obamacare.